I started doing some house greening last year and bought a number of house plants which I’ve been able to keep alive so far! yay me! Now that I have my house plants in order, I have decided to take it up a notch and start a beginner herb garden – it’s all in pots at the moment but it’s a garden nonetheless. Ultimately, I want to have a full on vegetable garden but I am taking it step by step till I reach Oprah levels of garden where my harvest day is goals!

How I started
I am using empty formula tins as my pots and also some plastic pots that I bought the herbs in. The soil I use is the same one that I use on my house plants – it’s potting soil that I bought at Builder’s Warehouse. The actual herbs I bought at Builder’s Warehouse and Woolworths and I got one from my mom.

Herb it up
I have started off with mint (which I got from my mom’s garden), basil, thyme, lavender and coriander. Honestly, I didn’t have a criteria for choosing which herbs I planted. I just thought about which herbs I’m more likely to use in my meals. I didn’t want to plant something like parsely which I would hardly ever use. I bought almost all the herbs as seedlings except for lavender which I bought as seeds in a packet. I’ve already sowed the lavender seeds and I really hope that some of them germinate.

As far as I have read, you are meant to wait a while before harvesting the herbs but I have been vary impatient. I used to harvest almost daily to use in my meals – I’ve stopped this now and I’m giving my plants some time to grow. While I was being naughty and harvesting alomst daily, I would flavour my salads with coriander and basil, cook my pork chops with thyme and rosemary and to use mint in my G&Ts :). My beginner herb garden is bringing me so much joy, I am excited for it to grow to new heights!

**I was in Checkers and came across their new collectibles promotion and I was so excited! It’s the Checkers little garden and they’re promoting that people grow their own plants (herbs, vegetables and flowers). I received one pack and it was leek seedlings which I have since planted. This promotion is meant to kids, but I’m getting all the way in on my daughter’s behalf :).